Wisconsin Life

I think part of what draws people to LEGO

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is this childlike sense of wonder about them.

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They're colorful. They'll make a beeline for something that is bright, almost as if it's flashing at them.

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My name is Emily Krans and I'm an unofficial LEGO Master Builder. I had been on some internet dating sites and I was in my 30s and I said, "OK, this is going to be the last round of guys that I email. "And after this, if I don't find anybody, "I'm single for life. "I'm OK with that. You know, that's what God has planned for me." My email went something like this, "If you are a bottom feeder, please do not respond."

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Not being a bottom feeder, I replied.

Emily chuckles

Hi, my name is Eric Krans and I am an unofficial LEGO Master Builder. I knew by the end of that first date that either we were going to be something special or we were going to be really good friends for the rest of our lives. Yeah, it turned out we were something special.

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We got married the next year. He had been into LEGO for about two years before I met him. And before I knew it, I was kind of building with LEGO. And now we don't have a living room anymore. We have a LEGO workroom.

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We bounce ideas off each other all the time. She is the more creative type. And she can imagine stuff and just build.

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My wife builds a Christmas town as she envisions it in West Bend. I love those little miniature Christmas villages. But sometimes, they can be a bit chintzy. And sometimes they're also really expensive. And I thought, "You know what? "I could build a Christmas town. "And I could make this relevant to the community that I live in because I've always loved Wisconsin." And so because of that, I wanted to pay tribute. She also has a California Christmas...

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...which is what you would envision California to be like during Christmas time. She gets to build without snow. So there's a lot more color involved instead of everything being covered in white. I'm amazed at her ability to just spontaneously create things. I need something to springboard off of.

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His theme is Harry Potter. Because he's so focused with one theme, it gives him the chance to really dig in and he has both small builds and big builds. The one that we get the most oohs and ahhs over is the moving Quidditch pitch.

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I estimate that to be about 13,500 bricks to 14,000 bricks. And he was holed up down in the basement like a mad scientist

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working on this for, I would say, about six months.

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And all the gears, all the workings, all the mechanics, everything that's in there, it's all LEGO. He is a bit of an engineering genius when it comes to LEGO. It blows my mind that he's able to take these plastic gears and rods and put them together and make these little figures fly around. And they don't just fly in a circle. No, you have a couple of them that are flying in a circle. Then you have one that's doing this little motion. And the fact that he could figure out how to do that motion. And then you have a couple other players that are doing other things. Do things that really draw the crowd in like, "You can do that with LEGO?" Holy insert-your-favorite-phrase here. We do anywhere between six to ten shows a year. And every time we do a show, we try to bring something new. So that, you know, pushes us not only to show, but also to build. I mean, what's more fun than hanging out with a bunch people that love to play with LEGO? We're always expanding. We're always building new things until we can't build anymore, I suppose. We run out of pieces or money... or space.

both chuckling

Space is the big one. - Right. Little house. Lots of LEGO! I think it's part of what keeps us happily married. The family that LEGOs together stays together.

chuckling